22 May 2014

 Birthdays
Tao Okamoto b. 1985 (Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Wolverine)
Lucy Gordon b. 1980 died 20 May 2009 (Spider-Man 3)
Maggie Q b. 1979 (Divergent, Priest)
Ginnifer Goodwin b. 1978 (Once Upon a Time)
Noa Tisby b. 1977 (Charmed, The Island, The 4400, Star Trek: Enterprise)
Max Brooks b. 1972 (author, World War Z)
Michael Kelly b. 1969 (Chronicle, The Adjustment Bureau, Fringe, Level 9)
Mark Christopher Lawrence b. 1964 (Halloween II, Heroes, The Island, K-PAX, Planet of the Apes, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Terminator 2: Judgment Day)
David Schneider b. 1963 (28 Days Later…)
Gary Sweet b. 1957 (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
Mike Muscat b. 1952 (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Last Action Hero, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Starman [TV], The Clan of the Cave Bear)
Cheryl Campbell b. 1949 (The Sarah Jane Adventures)
Michael Sarrazin b. 1940 died 17 April 2011 (Feardotcom, Arrival II, Earthquake in New York, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Frankenstein: The True Story)
Paul Winfield b. 1939 died 7 March 2004 (Mars Attacks!, White Dwarf, Babylon 5, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Charmings, The Terminator, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Twilight’s Last Gleaming)
Richard Benjamin b. 1938 (actor, Love at First Bite, Quark, Westworld, director, My Stepmother is an Alien)
John Nolan b. 1938 (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight Rises, 1990, Doomwatch, The Prisoner)
Quinn Martin b. 1922 died 5 September 1987 (producer, The Aliens Are Coming, The Mephisto Waltz, The Invaders)
Laurence Olivier b. 1907 died 11 July 1989 (Clash of the Titans, Dracula [1979], The Boys from Brazil)
Arthur Conan Doyle b. 1859 died 7 July 1930 (author, The Lost World)

 When it comes to iconic roles on this list, my top two would be Olivier as Zeus in Clash of the Titans or Paul Winfield as Captain Dathon in the episode Darmok. I chose the one I liked better. I'm sure I read the news when it happened, but I was surprised to find that both Paul Winfield and Michael Sarrazin are dead.

Many happy returns to the living on the list and to the dead, Darmok and Jalad, watching old movies.

Movies released
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull released, 2008
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian released, 2009

In the year 2000!

Predictor: Lee de Forest, "The Father of Radio", predicting the world of 2000 in the 17 January 1960 edition of the Sunday supplement American Weekly.

Prediction: Nuclear energy will be a practical power source for industry, autos, ships, missiles, trains, and planes. One "shot" of atomic fuel will last years. even decades. A single atomic battery will produce all the electricity needed for years in homes or factories in isolated regions.

Reality: Take de Forest away from his field of communications and his track record is pretty bad, as in almost at Paul Ehrlich levels of stink. He's right about atomic energy on ships - at least in the Navy - but autos, missiles, trains and planes... not so much. One little slip-up and your home or factory will be in a really isolated region for a couple of decades.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Speaking of Paul Ehrlich levels of bad, we still have a few more swings and misses from the so-called expert.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

18 August 2013

Birthdays
Edward Norton b. 1969 (Hulk re-boot)
Grant Williams b. 1931 died 28 July 1985 (The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Monolith Monsters)

The late Grant Williams gets the Picture Slot today. I could have chosen the still from the same scene where his perky wife played by Randy Stuart towers over him, but that just seemed too self-indulgent, if you get my drift.

Mr. Norton has had a very successful career, but very few sci-fi or fantasy roles. Many happy returns of the day to him.

 

Prediction: August 1977: Dr. Robert Neville injects himself with an experimental vaccine that will stop him from becoming an albino mutant vampire and believes himself the last man on earth

Predictor: The Omega Man (1971)

Reality: And if you want the vaccine, you can take it from his cold, dead hands.

Despite disco, polyester and the Ford Pinto, mankind in fact survived the 1970s.

Coincidence: I could have chosen any date in August to put this prediction - next year I'll put it on August 1, the released date of the movie - but by having The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Omega Man mentioned in the same post, this means a Daily Double for the late great Richard Matheson, who wrote The Shrinking Man and I Am Legend, the novels from which these movies were adapted.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We look at the first of a great set of predictions about nuclear powered transportation, found by Zombie Rotten McDonald, a great friend to this blog.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
   

Never to be forgotten:Richard Matheson 1926-2013

Richard Matheson was born on February 20, 1926, the same year the magazine Amazing Stories was first published. It's nearly meaningless to call the science fiction writers of the fifties and sixties "prolific", because if they weren't prolific, they either starved or were forgotten and found other work.

Matheson wrote sixteen scripts for the original Twilight Zone and one of the segments for Twilight Zone: The Movie. He wrote an episode of the original Star Trek, "The Enemy Within".  He wrote scripts for non-genre TV shows like Combat! and Have Gun, Will Travel, still one of my favorite titles for a TV series ever.

He wrote the short story and the screenplay for a 1971 ABC Movie of the Week titled Duel starring Dennis Weaver. It was the first big break for a kid director named Steven Spielberg. Spielberg returned the favor later, hiring Matheson to write for several of his productions, including the Amazing Stories TV anthology.

You might think I would end this eulogy with his work The Incredible Shrinking Man as a shout out to My People and Our Agenda. But any fair observer would say that his 1954 novel I Am Legend is the starting point for the genre of stories now called Zombie Apocalypse and in 2013, this is his great addition to the field.

Richard Matheson gave us thrills and chills and he made us think. You cannot ask more from a writer of science fiction and fantasy.

Richard Matheson died on Sunday, 23 June 2013. May he never be forgotten.